The Power of Prayer and of Malchut Shamayim

 This is the "back story” to

the saving of the two hostages

and this too is amazing and it came from a comment posted

Such a shame that people are ready to explain away this amazing neis. 

They simply refuse to see the Hand of Hashem in anything.

I read a dvar recently, I don't remember the Rav, but one of our gedolim, and the question was, why don't we see revealed miracles today. 

As recently as the time of the Baba Sali, we saw revealed miracles. 

Ask the Arabs, they'll tell you about the miracles of the Baba Sali. The Rabbi said that today, we have an explanation for everything. Therefore, it's not that Hashem is hidden from us, or that Hashem's Divine intervention in our lives is hidden, or chas v'shalom, inoperative. It's just that we explain it away with science, or conspiracy, or whatever. Kval. 

The truth is that 3 weeks before their release, I believe the sister of one of former hostages, a daughter and one other female accepted upon themselves to light Shabbat candles. This happened when they were in NY and I heard this story directly from the person involved. 

In the case of the sister (or older woman) she had never lit a Shabbat candle in her entire life, and she was more than 50 years old. Imagine..a Jewess, and never lighting a candle for Shabbat. And, yes, the daughter asked for tefillin that would be ready when her father returned home. I believe there was also a male family member who took on the mitzvah of tefillin. 

I see Hashem's involvement in my life and in the world every day because I WANT TO. I believe in the power of prayer. 

By the way, the female soldier who was released in the beginning of this war, her mother also took on kabalot, such as hafrish challah, lighting Shabbat candles, reciting Tehillim. They didn't join the families of the captives in their march to various secular offices and goyim. Instead, her family visited our Gedolim and Tzadikim seeing advice on what to do to beseech Hashem to release their daughter/family member. 

And, you saw the results. If we are not willing to acknowledge the power of prayer and of malchut Shamayim, but prefer instead to assault's Hashem's hashgacha pratit with our conspiracy stories and other explanations, then I ask, who ........ are we? We are Jews? Be very careful about what you read from bloggers. Most of them have their own agenda, and it's not to bring Moshiach.

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Without the "back story" to this amazing happening one could be skeptical because of the source of the story (as tomerdevorah wrote). However, once we know much more about the details that was not included in the video from Jeremy, one can definitely realize that we are 'getting messages from Shamayim’! Maybe, even if there was some ‘calculated planning by them’, I believe sof sof the ‘result’ is what matters. The “Darkness of these days” allows much to happen clandestinely.